[1]} remarked that “if the continuum is not reddened ... extrapolation of the visual continuum into the ultraviolet indicates that in this case there would be insufficient ultraviolet quanta to ionize the gas." [2]} showed that there was a severe AGN “energy-budget" problem because observed continua needed an impossible covering factor of \(\Omega /4\gtrsim 9\)  to match observed He ii \(\) 4686 equivalent widths (see [3]} for a review). [4]} examined the energy-budget problem for NGC 5548 for other broad lines and concluded that the problem could only be solved by with significant internal reddening. The reddening we find here is consistent with what the modelling of [4]} showed was needed. A very low reddening correcting, such as using only the \(E(B-V) \sim 0.02\)  due to Galactic reddening alone, fails to give enough ionizing photons to reproduce the observed broad emission lines in an AGN like NGC 5548.
